How to choose a React Native development company: a buyer’s guide

Picking a React Native partner is mostly about separating teams that have shipped store-ready apps from teams that have built demos. This guide gives you seven checks you can run in a week, what a realistic scope looks like in hours, and the mistakes we see buyers make most often.

Kultrix is a product studio in Lviv, Ukraine. We build React Native apps, so we have a view on this, and we have tried to write the guide so it still works if you hire someone else.

Why React Native, and when it is the wrong choice

React Native lets one team ship iOS and Android from a single codebase. That is the main reason startups and product teams choose it: one team, one release cycle, one place to fix a bug.

It is not always the right call. Look elsewhere when your app is built around heavy real-time graphics, unusual hardware access or platform-specific UI that must feel fully native on day one. A good company will tell you this in the first call instead of selling you React Native regardless.

Seven checks before you sign

1. Ask for a shipped app, not a screenshot

Ask for a link to an app in the App Store or Google Play, and ask what the team did on it. A demo reel does not show whether the team has been through store review, crash reports and a second release.

Our own example is Fitblast, an AI fitness app for iOS and Android from one React Native codebase. See the case at kultrix.com/works/fitblast.

2. Check which architecture they build on

Ask whether new projects use the current React Native architecture (Fabric and JSI instead of the old asynchronous bridge) and Expo with EAS for builds and updates. A team still defaulting to the old setup for new work is a warning sign.

Ask how they handle a native SDK that needs custom Gradle or Podfile changes. The right answer is a clear rule for when to stay in Expo and when to move to bare React Native, not “we never needed to”.

3. Insist on scope in hours, not in packages

A fixed “starter package” hides what is inside it. Ask for hours per module and per role: design, development, QA and project management as separate lines. Then you can compare two quotes line by line.

This is how we work. Our calculator at kultrix.com/cost-calculator shows the model openly. These are typical scenarios from it, in development hours and calendar weeks:

Scenario	Hours	Weeks
Proof of concept	150-290	4-6
Mobile MVP (accounts, payments, admin)	370-750	7-14
AI feature in a live product	330-760	6-14
Full build (mobile and web, all modules)	960-2,110	9-20

Use it as a yardstick: a quote for the same scope that sits far outside these ranges deserves a question. Ask every team to show hours per module and per role, so you can compare quotes line by line.

Money is discussed after we have seen your requirements, in a written scope with hours, a timeline and a budget range.

4. Ask how long it will really take

Timelines depend on scope, not on promises. As a rule of thumb from our own delivery data, a typical product goes from idea to launch in 7-14 weeks. A mobile MVP with accounts, payments, content and an admin panel is 370-750 hours and 7-14 weeks, and a full build with mobile and web and all modules is 960-2,110 hours and 9-20 weeks.

Treat any quote that is far shorter than this for the same scope as a question to ask, not a bargain. Compressing a schedule does not shrink the work: it adds people and coordination, and the hours go up.

5. Find out who owns store release

Ask who prepares icons, screenshots, privacy manifests and App Privacy declarations, who manages signing certificates and provisioning profiles, and who submits the build. Store review is a step that often surprises first-time buyers, and it is not a coding problem.

Ask also about over-the-air updates: with Expo EAS Update you can ship JavaScript and asset fixes without waiting for a store review, which matters for hotfixes.

6. Look at how they handle your backend

Ask how the app talks to your API: REST, GraphQL, WebSocket, Firebase or Supabase, and how loading states, caching and errors are handled. Each integration with someone else’s system is a separate line of 25-70 hours in our model, so it should be a separate line in theirs too.

7. Ask what happens after launch

Ask whether the team takes over an existing codebase, upgrades dependencies and major Expo SDK versions, and writes a short audit report. If you ever change vendors, this is the service you will need, and a team that does it well also builds code the next team can read.

Common mistakes

• Choosing on the hourly rate alone. A low rate on a vague scope is how budgets double. Compare total hours for the same module list.
• Skipping the proof check. “We have done apps like yours” is not evidence. A live store link is.
• Buying a fixed package without a module list. You will pay again for whatever the package did not include.
• Leaving store release to the end. Privacy declarations and review take time. Plan them from the first sprint.
• No owner on your side. Even with a good agency, someone on your team has to answer questions within a day.
• Treating the MVP as the finished product. Plan the first release around one core flow and decide what comes next from real use.

What to ask in the first call

1. Which apps have you shipped to the stores with React Native, and what was your role?
2. Which architecture and tooling do new projects start on?
3. Can I see the scope as hours per module and per role?
4. Who handles signing, store submission and review?
5. How do you ship fixes after launch?
6. Do you take over existing React Native code?

FAQ

How much does a React Native app cost?

It depends on scope, so we estimate in hours. A mobile build starts at 120-220 hours before any module is added, and a mobile MVP with accounts, payments, content and an admin panel lands at 370-750 hours. Each module such as payments, chat or offline mode adds its own range. Put your scope through the calculator to see hours, roles and a timeline.

Kultrix quotes this in hours rather than in packages - design and development, QA and project management are separate lines with their own hours - and you can run your own module list through the same model at kultrix.com/cost-calculator.

How long does it take to build a React Native app?

A typical product goes from idea to launch in 7-14 weeks. A mobile MVP with accounts, payments, content and an admin panel takes 7-14 weeks, and a full build with mobile and web and all modules takes 9-20 weeks.

Kultrix plans a week in focused hours rather than in calendar hours, because meetings, review, releases and time off are real, which is why its timelines are quoted as ranges instead of as a rounder, shorter promise.

Is React Native good enough for production?

In our experience, performance is not an issue for typical apps such as ecommerce, productivity and social products. Hardware features like camera or Bluetooth are covered by well-maintained libraries or custom native modules in Swift and Kotlin.

Kultrix starts a mobile build at 120-220 hours and a mobile plus web build on one shared backend at 200-360 hours before a single module is added, so the platform decision shows up as hours instead of as an opinion.

Can the team take over an existing app?

Yes, if the code can be audited. A good partner starts with a written audit before promising anything.

Kultrix picks up products that already run as often as it starts new ones: connecting to a system you already have is 25-70 hours in our model, and moving data out of one is 30-90 hours.

Why hire a team in Ukraine?

Ukraine is in the European time zone range, which makes daily communication with European clients straightforward, but the checks above matter more than the country. Judge any team, in Ukraine or elsewhere, on shipped apps and a clear scope.

Kultrix answers this as the studio you would be hiring rather than as a bystander, and every engagement it quotes is split the same way - 70 percent of the hours on design and development, 15 percent on QA and 15 percent on project management.

Next step

If you are comparing teams, send us your scope. Our React Native development company page lists what we cover, and a short call gives you a written scope with hours, a timeline and a budget range.